Albuminuria and urinary albumin-creatinine ratio of hypertensives attending a tertiary hospital at Enugu, Nigeria

ABSTRACT Background: People with high blood pressure (hypertensives) are at high risk of nephropathy and some studies point to increased albuminuria and albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR) as early indices of this condition. Objective: This study evaluated the presence of albuminuria and determine urine ACR of hypertensives attending the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out on eighty-nine (89) volunteers (50 tests and 39 controls) aged 21-77 years. Subjects’ anthropometry was measured. Blood and urine samples were collected and analyzed for serum creatinine (SCr), urine creatinine (UCr) and urine albumin using Jaffe modified kinetic method and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), respectively. Results: Of the 89 subjects, there was a significant difference in the height, SCr, eGFR, and UCr of both sexes. Of which, BMI was lower in males than the females. However, there was no significant difference between systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), pulse, weight, urine albumin and ACR with the sex of both subjects. The test subjects had significantly higher SBP, DBP, weight, BMI, SCr, urine albumin, and ACR but lower eGFR and UCr when compared with the control subjects. Besides, there was a significant difference in the SBP, height, SCr and eGFR between the sexes of test subjects. Of which, males had relatively higher values. Conclusion: Findings from this study revealed that the hypertensives were at high risk of kidney injuries. Furthermore, albuminuria was observed to be much lower than the current threshold employed to define microalbuminuria and was associated with lower eGFR